The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-12-21
PELICAN FISHING.
A POT HUNTER TELLS OF HIS
LUCK WITH A BLUE WHISTLER
Life in the Louisiana Wildsrness--Mones
Made shovcling Oystsrs-Night Hunts
After Ailigators--salting Down the
Hides and Bnrying the Heads

After Allfgators-saitin6 Low" WV
Hides and Burying the Heads
al used to shovel oysters for about eight
months In the year. said the captain, ION
the lower Bayou la Fourche, barrel them
and send them around 20 New Orleans, where
they brought me from 10 u bits barrel.
The Gulf oyster, as a rule, is small, but they
are almost as plenty as pebbles. For fifteen
miles from the coast every little bayou IN
Louisiana is an oyster bed. Where the stream
is more than four feet deep the oysters are
taken with drcdgcs in the usual way but
that is such a slow process that the shallo"
beds are more favored Here one has but
10 wade out into the water with "A scoop OF
fork and shovel his dugout full in no time
OF course when they only bring 20 cents &c
$3.50 barrel in the New Orleans market
there is not much money in the business; but
q little money goes long way to the bayou
dweller
"Whilo working the oyster beds was 30
near the coast that | used 10 put in day or
two each week pelican fishing. You take "A
long line-a sea grass line; rig It out with
about thirty hooks set in punches OF threts,
dashed back 10 back keep the line on the
water by means Of floats, and bait your hooks
with fry The pelican sails over the water,
sees the fish, swoops down and pouches fish
and hook lie thinks he has got stingray
in his pouch and tries 70 spit II out; but II
won't 20. Then he makes up his mind TO take
il away with him; but suddenly the line
brings him up short and he falls into the
water with splash. when he founders
around until ] paddle out and take him
aboard with me
"There is a bunch Of fine, hair like feathers
In each wing Of the pelican which bring m
their rough state thirty-hve cents bunch,
or seventy cents for each bird. When had
time used 10 skin the whole bird, stuff him
and get from s. 10 Sli for him.
WITH GLUE WHISTLER"
In the summer Of 1873 reached the coast
one morning at o'clock. Thore was high
wind and heavy swell on the water, and
hundreds Of the birds were following the
waves They fly at a distance Of about
yard from the water, rising and falling with
the waves as regularly as though they were
floating upon them. When a fish shows him
self the bird viii drop, scoop up the victim
sling it into lis pouch and 60 on until It has
load Of ten pounds or more Of fish.
"Well. sir, there were 50 many of them that
/ did not trouble 20 set the line, but padded
out among them, and before the day was
done ! had settled thirty eight Of them, kill
ing them with a blue whistler IttOok me all
night
What is blue whistler
You put heavy charge of powder into
your cylinder bore shotgun, cover it with
wad; on top Of that You ram in five buckshot,
another light wad, five more buckshot, and
still five; another tight wad, and you have
blue whistler
as not buckshot big dose for birdF
Not for apelican. You have TO take them
breast on in order not 20 injure the wings
and, like the ducks breast, the pelican's front
viii turn light load Of lead. Well, as was
saying, il took me all night and most Of nexI
day to strip and pack the feathers; but as
got S2j for tho lot / did not begrudge the
work But that was a big day Sometimes,
when the oysters were out Of season, 1t seemed
as though everything went wrong. might
paddle around all night and never find
gator, and keep my lines set all day without
catching a bird Often and often | have
been so poor that had TO paddle out into
rice field, gather a peck or so of the green
rice and eat IL boiled without any other sea
soning than pint Of salt water thrown into
the pot Sometimes ] could get nothing but
pelican meat Ii tastes to me like spoiled
fish, but the negroes down south like II.
They boil it for a few hours and then bake II
with sweet potatoes, as the Kentucky negro
cooks poSsum But the black man will eat
anything. While / was camped down in A.
sumption county, La, night shooting gators,
the field hands would come 10 my camp and
carry away every tail ! would give them.
They cut the gator tail into strips dry them
and sometimes eat them raw and sometimes
make a soup Of them
ALLIGATOR HUNTING.
There is money in gator hunting, but,
taken altogether, II is hard work. Have You
ever padded piroguel The first time a man
stops into pirogue 1t ducks away from un
der him and leaves him laundering in the
water 50 smoothly that he can't help remem-
bering the thing. 1t is a canoe followed ont
of a single cypress log, and is so light that the
weight Of a man hardly forces it below the
surface at all II practically slides over the
water, anu utilct - the bNol bpdN iilu1c l'l
the shadows.
GAS soon a. II grew dusk | would take my
rifle and little dark lantern, which bought
IN New Orleans for seyenty-fiye cents, and,
after seating myself on the bottom of the
piroguc, paddle up the bayou, flashing the
eye Of my lantern upon either shore as /
passed When the light would strike
gator il was only necessary TO keep the flash
in his ewes and he was blind as bat. Not
knowing which way 10 move 10 escape the
danger, he would not move at all until sent
Il bullet into his eye, when he would thrash
around with his tail for few seconds or
sometimes make an ugly rush toward me,
swapping his jaws, and then suddenly drop
mOtiOnleSS
"As soon as he was dead ! would haul him
well ashore and keep on up the bayou The
gators are plenty enough in Louisiana
swampS, about as plenty as chickens in a
farming country, 80 that 1t was seldom that
padded more than mile or two without
killing half dozen Of them. As a rule did +,
not want more than six in night, as it is I
big piece OF work to skin an alligator, 10 salt I
down his hide and bury his head
"Bury his headr
ayes, his jawbones, in order 10 remove the /
flesh and loosen the teeth After being taken /
off, the hides are covered with coarse salt, |